The book in written with innocent sincerity. It may be manipulative, but it's not phony. A better writer than Salinger easily could write a book about a troubled yet appealing teenager, but its artifice and insincerity would be self-evident and readers would reject it as false. It is from Jerome David Salinger's heart. He said everything he had to say in it, which may well be why he has said nothing else.

One of the major reasons The Catcher in the Rye is banned in some school libraries is because of the sexual content and offensive language used. The sexual content is not explicit in nature, but parents are opposed to the book being a part of the curriculum for high school students. Holden thinks, talks, and worries about sex frequently in the book and even believes his friends are sexually active. This is typical behavior of an average teenage boy. The sexual content in the book cannot be any worse than what teenagers are seeing on television shows and in music videos. It is third on the list of most challenged. Other reasons include many of the characters in the book are drinking and smoking. And there is also two references to suiside.

The book had many influences including

-popularized the slang verb "screw up"

-The most well-known event associated with The Catcher in the Rye is when Mark David Chapman shoot John Lennon. Chapman identified with the novel's narrator to the extent that he wanted to change his name to Holden Caulfield. On the night he shot Lennon, Chapman was found with a copy of the book in which he had written "This is my statement" and signed Holden's name.

-A Rebel Without a Cause(1955) is widely regarded as one of the first American films to look into the teen mind

-In the Boy Meets World episode "Poetic License: An Ode to Holden Caulfield", Shawn has written a poem called "An Unpublished Manuscript for J.D. Salinger".

-Many songs and books have been based off of or got their ideas from Catcher and the Rye.

Part of the reason the Catcher and the rye had such an impact is because most books at that time were about admirable youngsters whose hard work allowed them to overcome any obstacle and defiantly didn't doubt themselves or the adults who offered valuable advice.


Teens today can still connect to Catcher and the Rye on an emotional level. This can be hard at times because the language is quite different and unfamiliar, but still the actions and ways specific to teens still hold true.


Catcher in the rye did not necessarily excepted by the society of people in the 20th century, and even in the 21st century. It continues to be banned by many schools across the country for suggestive, and adult themes, coarse language, sexual scenes, and intense violence. The effect it had on the adult generation of the 1900’s was bad. In 1960, a teacher from Tusla, Oklahoma was fired for assigning the book to an eleventh grade English class.

Teenagers of its time related so well to the book. However I have done some research and found that not ALL teenagers during the 50’s-60’s felt the same way about the book. Some adored the book, saying it was like the book was written by someone who went to there school, that it speaks directly to them. Yet others felt like it was not a great depiction of high school students at all.
The teenagers of this day and age feel and respond the same way. Some kids dislike it to the point of where a High school girl created a YouTube video of her stabbing the book repeatedly and then burning It on her family’s grill.


Referred to by some as “One of America’s literary treasures.”

“Speaks clearly to the teenaged soul.”

When this text was first published there were two opposing reactions to the novel. One group believed it introduced a new perspective into American literature and the opposing group saw it as a corrupting force on young people.Teenagers today who are going through emotional stages in their life can connect to the Holden's character. They feel that adults have all the freedom. Also the teens that move into the adult world start to understand Holden's character more because of what they've been through as a young teen. But many other kids that read the book say they dislike is because they don't understand Holden as a being they didn't believer what he believed in, and could not really have a connection with him.


The Catcher in the Rye was estimated to be banned from library shelves the most frequently during the 1990s. There were many different mixed reactions to this book mostly because of the language and the immorality and perversion that are discussed freely.